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Historybuff

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Everything posted by Historybuff

  1. Very nice work. Did you do the bead work also?
  2. My kind of stuff. I like the hearts on the dark pouch and the lacing and madallion on the light one. Exactly what is the madallion on the modern pouch? It looks like hematite.
  3. These are the kind of items I enjoy looking at.. I've made a half dozen or so pouches, horns, powder measures, etc... over the years and this one looks great. I use the stuff I make because of being a living historian circa 1750-1814. Great stuff.
  4. Check out some of the muzzleloading sites-I recommend Track of the Wolf- and pick up a book called Recreating the 18th Century Hunting Pouch by T.C. Adams. It takes you step by step thru one type of pouch and gives patterns for three more. Gives a list of tools needed, type of leathr, how to stain, etc....
  5. You should see a moon like that shining over the Gulf of Mexico. We live about a mile from the gulf in Florida and a full moon like that seen from a pontoon boat with the porpose playing about is like a little slice of heavan.
  6. You started your rant with one of me and my wifes friends (paraphrase) She's obviously not. Sometimes you can get to know someone you inatially like but later find out way too much about them and wish you had never met them. Happened to me recently.
  7. try some clock repair supply stores or some of the big steel suppliers across the U.S. They sell 'spring' or ribbon steel by the roll.
  8. For the boots. Go to a local sporting goods store that sells fishing tackle and look for 'spider-wire' fishing line. Its sold just like regular fishing line, but its really a kevlar like thread. Use heavy guage stuff. 20-50 lb test. or higher. The messanger bag, I'd use a good waxed linen thread. For the sheath, I'd go with black leather and copper or silver rivets but only if you do not want to cut or stamp designs into the leather. If you use a belt loop, no problem, for a belt clip. Find an old spoon with a pretty design on the handle, Break or cut the handle off then bend into a spring clip shape. Attach to the sheath with small rivets. Theres a thread around here somewhere that shows an eye glass clip made from an old spoon handle. Check out threads by Treereaper. For the blacksmithing. Check out some of the schools or classes across the U.S. I took the begginers class at the JC Campbell Folk School in Brass Town NC. Its a week long and I stayed in the camp ground. Other than that I'm pretty much self tought.
  9. Before buying anything you must ask yourself, am I going to specialize in any particular type of leather work? If so, what? Then you can get into the essential tool thingy. I sepcialize in leather gear from the 1750-1815 time frame in American history specifically frontier life, therefore a swivel knive would be a waste of money for me. Of prime importance to me are needles, type and style and special use. A good knive. I use an old straight razor. I do a lot of riviting, mostly copper so a good pair of heavy duty wire cutters, an appropriate sized monkey tool and a small but heavy ball peen hammer, plus a small steel block are a must.. I do not use any thread that was not available during the time frame indicated, therefore waxed linen, hemp, jute and sinew are basically my only options. Think about what you want to do THEN buy your tools accordingly. BTW I'm also a blacksmith, so I make a lot of my own tools. It has been said that a blacksmith is the only craftsman that will make a tool to help him make another tool.
  10. All my stitch markers and awls are made from either two, three or four pronged forks from the early 19th to early 20th century. I remove the center prong from a three pronged fork and use the fork for a wide stitch spacer and the prong for a sewing awl. Cut the prongs down on a four prong fork and I have a 5 to the inch stitch spacer. For heavy leather I use an awl made from a sharpened copper rod glued into a piece of antler. I make my own leather knives either on my forge or from old straight razors I run across and i have made my own bone needles but must confess I really like the steel ones. I do however have some very old iron needles that I use occasonaly just for grins. I use either hide or fish glue for gluing leather and make my own water proofing/conditioner from beeswax and mineral oil. I have even made my own sinew thread sometimes. My wife and I are both living historians and enjoy the 1750-1814 time frame.
  11. This is the kind of stuff I love. Really great pict and detailed info. I primitive camped in a cold rain and woke up to ice and some damp gear last weekend, and absolutely loved every minute of it.
  12. I've worked with raw hide but never made a maul from it. I suggest piick up a cheap used one at a flea market if possible and use that as an example. I'e also never found a glue that works on anything while its wet.
  13. Nice job Tree Reaper. That would make a great clip for a knife sheath, and since I'm a cheap SOB, I take the spoon portion, flatten it out, put leaf 'veins' in using a hammer and chisel, bend and fold slightly, add some color with heat treating or acid and foila! I now have a leaf I can tack weld to any of my BSing-BSing for the uninitated is BlackSmithing- projects.
  14. I've never had a spoon handle break so far. Of course repeated bending over a short period-minutes-will weaken the metal and eventualy break it. For good spring steel to be used as clips I have used old mechanics feeler guage blades. Heat the piece to a cherry red where you want it bent,bend, let cool. The bent area will be softer than the rest of the piece unless you retemper it. I personally have never bothered to reheat and temper a clip made from these blades and never had one of them break either. 'soft' is relative.
  15. You can get small rosin blocks at music stores, Its what violin users use to 'rosin up the bow'. The clearer the rosin the purer and more expensive. My main problem seems to be the ratio of rosin to bees wax.
  16. Thats what the bees wax is for I think, from what I can gather. The stuff I'm talking about is not liquid or even semi-solid. Its been on the groud or stuck to the tree long enough to harden into a solid.
  17. Spoon handles make great clips, and come with a variety of designs and shapes. I use them for knife sheath clips if someone prefers those to belt loops. Cut the handle to length, drill a couple small holes and use small rivits to attach to whatever. Once attached, bend to clip shape using pliers with padded jaws. Looks great and is a very intresting conversation piece. I reckon baby spoons would be good for a glasses case. I kinda like the idea of a small Micky Mouse clip. Reckon I'll start looking for a Micky spoon.
  18. I'll take all your willing to get rid of. I'm also a blacksmith and use antler for knife handles. I can trade with raw pine resin or am willing to try and make any special tool you might need, or any thing else I can make on the forge. Steak, flippers, forks, spoons, ladles, knife, rr spike tomahawks. I've also scrimshawed powder horns-simples designs only, not real good at that yet.Or my wife is a prolific knitter, Do you need knitted goods? Can do 100% wool with washing instructions. caps, socks-both regular and over the knee lengths-fingerless gloves, scarves, baby items. I trade off her knitting skills and she trades of my blacksmithing skills. If your intested, just pm me and we'll work something out.
  19. I can get all the 100% pure pine resin I need just by harvesting it off the lightning struck pines on our property. Usually in the form of hardned globs laying on the ground or still stuck to the tree. The globs on the ground have to be slowly melted and strained to get all the bugs, twigs, etc... out. I use this as 'brewers pitch' for coating the inside of leather drinking jacks. Not for hot liquids. The globs still on the tree are pretty much uncontaminated and result in a relitivly good, clean resin once melted and poured into molds. I reckon I'll just experiment with a combo of pine resin and bees wax and see if I can reach a happy medium somewhere. Thanks for the input.
  20. Has anyone here heard of 'black wax'? Its supposidly used to wax your sewing thread for hand stitching? A mixture of bees wax and pine tar that sticks better and is more wear restant than using plain bees wax. I've looked a number of places and havnt been able to find it at all.
  21. My wife and I are both Living Historians, 1750-1812 peiods. After looking at the prices wanted for the leather accouterments I started making my own. I got into blacksmithing, woodworking, and schrimshawing for the same reasons. My stuff may not look as good, but we portray average everyday folks living on the frontier and everything we had would have been hard used anyway.
  22. Hilly, dont misunderstand me. I've also hunted both rifle and bow and enjoyed it thourghly and I've let many more deer pass than I ever took a shot at and I hunted for meat not trophys. I've also helped slaughter hogs and cattle and have eaten cat, opossum, moray eel, iguana and a lot of other animals. My point is ours (the U.S.) is not the only country on this earth and I honestly feel that we have no right to judge any other countrys way of doing things just because we dont agree with it. Some where along the line a lot of folks here came to think that the U.S. is the world police. I do not, never have and never will believe this. Please accept this for what it is, a personal opinion. Everyone in our country has and is entiled to their own, and there are very few countries on this earth that have that type of freedom.
  23. I am 60 years old and have spent over half my life living outside the contential US. My dad was career military and so was I, and so was my wife's dad. We have lived with this type of terrorism all our lives. Its one thing to visit a foregn country for a few days or weeks, quite another to actually live on the econemy for 2-4 years in that foreign country. and be targeted just because your an American. I'm reasonably certain that if I find some kid dropping one these things on my lawn, the local police will have to take his statement standing beside his hospital bed, either that or the emergency room doc will have to be VERY carefull removing the thing from a body orifice.
  24. To be honest, I'm not real concerened with whats happening in other countries. I'm a lot more concerened with what's happening in ours, Gangs, homeless, drugs. I'm afraid that animals arent very high on my priority list and I've spent more than half of my 60 years living outside the contental U.S.. I'm with HENNESSY on this one. I've lived in SE Asia and my family will never go hungry as long as I can 'adopt' a dog. My only concern as far as the chinese leather is concerened is, is it cheaper and what quality is it?
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